


Ashes to Ashes

by Intrepid_Inkweaver



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 15:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intrepid_Inkweaver/pseuds/Intrepid_Inkweaver
Summary: To the world, the Hero of Ferelden is dead, killed when she defeated the Archdemon in Denerim.Strange things have been happening in Thedas of late, however.Kathryn Hawke and her friends find an elven mage captured by slavers who has no memories at all of her life beyond the past couple of days. She knows things she shouldn't and no one in Kirkwall recognizes her. She says that she woke up in an ancient elven burial ground that Hawke believes is the one in which Flemeth stepped out of her amulet, and where the Witch of the Wilds is concerned, nothing is simple.





	Ashes to Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> It's strange that the first thing with my main Dragon Age character that I get around to posting doesn't even take place in her own game.

“Anders! Hawke! Get over here!” yelled Isabela from across the slavers campsite. Varric had heard a rumor that there were slavers in the area, but Hawke hadn’t expected to run into a whole camp of them on this simple fetch-and-grab mission.

“What is it?” she asked, setting down the sack she’d been rifling through and walking over, Anders following. Isabela was crouching inside a makeshift pen that until just now Hawke had assumed was empty.

The elven woman Isabela was crouching beside was unconscious, tied hand and foot to a stake thrust in the ground. She was naked, her short, black wavy hair full of debris, her copper-toned skin covered in grime that didn’t quite disguise the multitude of scars tracing over her. For as still as she lay, she could have been dead. Isabela must have had the same thought, because she reached out to feel for the woman’s breath.

“She’s alive. Anders, can you do something for her?” The healer had already vaulted over the enclosure’s fence and knelt next to her. He cut away her bonds and his hands glowed as he scanned her for injuries.

“She’s not injured—well, except for this,” he said, gesturing at her belly where three slash marks looked to be only partially healed.

Isabela whistled. “Looks like she got mauled by a dragon.”

“I think she exhausted her mana, that’s why she’s unconscious. Though she’s also somewhat dehydrated and malnourished.”

Just then, from across the camp, Bethany yelled, “Kat! Where are you guys?”

Hawke answered, “We’re over here!” before asking Anders, “She’s a mage?” He nodded. “Can you wake her up?”

“I should be able to.” He placed his glowing hand on the unconscious woman’s forehead as Bethany walked up to the pen.

“Oh, my,” she said. Hawke nodded in agreement.

“Did you find us a campsite?” She asked quietly.

“Yes, it’s not far,” answered Bethany.

Anders then took a deep breath and pulled his hands away from the woman’s face and she came to with a gasp. Immediately upon seeing the people around her, she flinched away and attempted to escape.

Anders held up his hands placatingly. “It’s okay. We’re here to help you.”

She studied each of them for a few moments with dark, moss-green eyes. She had a tattoo of a budding vine dripping water around her left eye that Kat hadn’t noticed before. The same pattern twined down her left arm and ended in a flower on the back of her hand. Kat didn’t think it was vallaslin, but she wasn’t entirely certain.

The woman relaxed minutely after studying them and asked in a hoarse voice, “Did you kill the slavers?”

“Yes,” answered Hawke, “they’re all dead.”

“Good.” She then seemed to notice her state of undress and curled into herself trying to cover up.

“Oh, I nearly forgot, sorry!” said Anders quickly taking off his feathery coat and handing it to her. She smiled gratefully at him and wrapped it around herself. “My name is Anders,” he said gently, “this is Isabela, Hawke and Bethany. What’s your name?”

She frowned and looked away. “I don’t know.”

It took Hawke a moment to catch her meaning. “You mean you can’t remember?” she glanced at Anders. “Did she have some kind of head wound?” The healer shook his head.

“I was like this before the slavers caught me. I woke up somewhere on the mountain with no memories, covered in ash, with nothing on me but this,” she said, holding up a pendant that Hawke had failed to notice until now. It was silver, about the size of a pocket watch, with some kind of sigil on the front.

Anders brow furrowed and he asked, “May I see that?” The woman nodded and pulled it over her head to hand to him. His eyebrows went up. “This is the symbol of the pre-Andrastian Chantry!” He flipped it over and stared at the back for a moment before quickly handing it away with a shudder. “It’s got some sort of strange enchantment on it, too. I’m surprised the slavers didn’t take it off of you.”

As the woman pulled the chain back over her head, Bethany asked, “So there was no one around when you woke up?”

“No. It was like...an abandoned graveyard. There were scorch marks around me and elsewhere, and the air was…very odd. The Veil was thin there, like the Fade was pushing through, almost. I walked for nearly a day and a half before the slavers found me.”

Kat and her sister were exchanging glances at this. “An abandoned graveyard?” asked Bethany.

“It sounds like that place we went to with Merrill to do that Dalish ritual with the witch’s amulet.”

“The one where the dragon lady popped out of the amulet?” asked Isabela and Kat nodded. The pirate captain whistled. “Maker, I wish I’d been there for that one!”

“Dragon lady?” asked the elven woman, puzzled.

“It’s a very long story and it’s getting dark. Would you be willing to come with us back to Kirkwall? I have friends there who may be able to help you—maybe get your memories back, or at least figure out who you are.”

Anders helped her to her feet and she wrapped his coat more firmly around her before answering, “I have nowhere else to go. I thank you for your offer.”

“Perhaps we can find some clothes for you among the slavers’ things,” said Isabela.

Hawke nodded. “Good idea. You and Bethany can stay here and continue looking through their stuff while Anders and...ummm...What would you like us to call you?” she asked the elf.

She frowned and shrugged. “I do not know.”

“How about Ashara?” asked Bethany. Kat raised a questioning eyebrow at her and she explained to the elf, “You said that when you woke up you were covered in ashes, and there was a woman in Lothering—the village where we grew up—named Ashara.”

“Ashara,” said the woman slowly as though trying it out. “It’s a pretty name. It’ll work.”

“Okay, good. Ashara, Anders and I will go and set up camp.”

Bethany told them where the spot was that she had found and they made their way there. Despite her state of relative undress, Ashara helped pitch camp by gathering dry wood for a fire. It was clear, however, that unlike many elves—Dalish in particular—that she was unaccustomed to walking around outside with no shoes on. She also was forced to keep re-adjusting Anders’ coat around her, as it was so large on her that she looked like a small child who had decided to try on their father’s clothing.

Bethany and Isabela returned after the fire was started and the tents pitched with spoils from the slavers’ campsite—among them, clothes for Ashara. She used one of the tents to change and came out wearing a thigh-length wool robe, leggings, and leather boots. They were all still too large, but she looked far more comfortable, never-the-less. She handed Anders’ coat back to him with a murmured ‘thank you’. Anders smiled at her and put his coat back on.

Bethany had also taken a staff off of one of the dead Tevinters, which she now presented to Ashara. “I figured it would be a good idea to have one while we’re out here. We never know who or what we may run into.”

Ashara tested the balance of the staff experimentally and smiled. “Thank you, I appreciate this,” she said, her voice oddly emotional.

“It was no trouble,” answered Bethany. “Are you okay?”

Ashara wiped her eyes. “Ah, yes, I’m fine. I’m not sure why that caused such a strong reaction. I felt as though...I had lost something...” she trailed off with her brow furrowed intensely. “I don’t know, I apologize.”

“It’s fine, I understand.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> "Ashara's" real name is actually Rerei'i Surana btw.


End file.
